Proposed by: Sayema Ahmed
Seconded by: Maeidul Khondaker, Hudhayfa Salahuddin Khan, Khadija Osman, Najma Farrah
What do you want?
The SU to reform their external speakers process to be more transparent with student groups & societies about their external speakers review process.
Why do you want it?
The SU should be more transparent towards student groups & societies about the decisions made following external speaker requests. It is often unclear to society committee members about how the SU have taken the decision to assess whether a speaker can be approved or not, including how the SU determines what level of risk a speaker presents. This leads to many societies appealing decisions and results in frustrating delays in getting speakers approved due to a variety of reasons.
The process should include an external speaker document that is assessed by the SU and submitted back to the committee member who filled in the external speaker request. The document should have full details of how research on the speaker was conducted and how the speaker was assessed for approval/disapproval, and for what their risk level is.
What impact will this have?
Student groups & societies will have a better understanding when the SU is more transparent to them. This will also prevent having to go back & forth upon decisions and appeals when requesting for an external speaker. In addition, this will allow society events to go smoothly as planned without having to cancel events due to unapproved speakers and unforeseen circumstances.